A
FIRESIDE CHAT WITH JOHN BURK OF CONCORD RECORDS
When I did buying for Tower (in a past, remote life), I always bought
a good deal of Concord material. With must-have releases from Kenny Burrell,
Walter Norris, Chris Potter, Poncho Sanchez, Scott Hamilton, Lew Tabackin,
Karrin Allyson, Nneena Freelon, Phil Woods, Marian McPartland, Stan Getz,
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Joanne Brackeen, Al Cohn, Hank Jones,
LA Four, and Gene Harris, Concord, with its strong catalog and quality
productions, was a consistent crowd pleaser. Since that time, Concord
has been in a difficult limbo, until it was finally settled last year.
Now, with its management in place, solid artist roster, Concord is poised
to continue its meteoric rise. John Burk, the backbone behind Concord,
sat down with me for a candid one on one. What makes the industry wheels
tick is vital to you, the consumer. Because if you don't have a clue to
why a CD is or is not on your local record store's shelves, then you don't
know. And knowing is half the battle. So to keep you better informed,
I bring it to you, unedited and in his own words.
FRED JUNG: How long has your tenure with Concord been?
JOHN
BURK: I started in March of 1989. It's been eleven years.
FJ:
How have you seen the label grow within those eleven years?
JOHN
BURK: About the time that I came on, we got really aggressive about converting
to CD. That was still in the middle of the CD boom. That was one of the
things that we were slow in doing. It was one of the first things that
I really got involved in, was converting a lot of our catalog into compact
disc and just getting more aggressive about that. That helped tha business
grow quite a bit, which it helped a lot of record companies at that time.
GRP is a stellar example of growth fueled by the CD boom. We grew a little
bit just sort of organically, running the company and good artist signings
and things like that. It didn't grow very rapidly because Mr. Jefferson
was not looking to grow. He was pretty comfortable with the size of the
label and direction and he was getting on in age and he wasn't really
aggressive pursuing growth with the label. He had a really nice situation.
He owned the company in full and was the landlord and had the two luxuries
of being completely free to make creative decisions regardless within
certain parameters regardless of the financial consequences, so he would
make the records for the sheer joy of it, which is what everyone in the
record business would love to do and economics don't always allow you
to do. It was a neat period, but not a lot of growth. When he was 72,
73 years old, somewhere in there, he was thinking maybe he better sell
it. Realizing that he was not immortal, he wanted to see the company go
on. He thought that maybe it would be time for the company to grow and
for him to phase himself out. He talked to a lot of suiters and eventually
chose Alliance to sell the company to. Primarily because of Glen Barros,
who was working for Alliance at the time. His charge was to aquire labels
and run the label group. He really hit it off with Jefferson and Jefferson
trusted him and they had talked and Glen had a lot of good ideas about
building the label and doing it the right way and was respectful of the
tradition and the integrity and philosophy that the company was built
on. That is what Jefferson really liked. It seemed like a good marriage
and the plan was for Jefferson to stay on for two years and slowly move
into this growth phase and what happened was, he died about three months
after the deal closed and so it was all happening so quickly that he asked
Glen to step down from running the label group at Alliance to running
just Concord. He agreed to come out and Glen and I also hit it off. We
more rapidly implimented a lot of the growth plan for the label and so
we had a really good growth period in '95 to '97, until Alliance went
bankrupt.
FJ:
Let's touch on that lengthy and very difficult bankruptcy.
JOHN
BURK: It was rough, but we went into it with a really good head of steam.
We were growing like crazy and we were very profitable and very successful
at that point. We were built on a really solid foundation. So we cruised
into that pretty healthy, but unfortunately, our distributor disintegrated
beneath us during the most significant quarter of the year, for the whole
fall season basically. We had no distribution what so ever. Certain accounts
were prohibited from buying from Alliance and we were prohibited from
leaving Alliance. Here we were with accounts saying we want to buy your
product and can we buy it from you, from somebody else, and we had to
say no. It was really, really frustrating. So we had make a really fast
distribution deal and move when we finally got the green light. So within
thirty days we had to put together a new deal. That was in November of
'97 and by that time, the fall buying was over for all the stores and
we missed out on a lot of opportunities. We got back on our feet fairly
quickly, but then we went through two years of being on and off the auction
block. Being one of the valuable assets of Alliance, they were trying
to sell us and maximize whatever money they could get out of us. To make
a long story short, what they did was they chased a couple of phantom
bids that were really high that didn't materialize and so I think once,
they signed a deal that went on for like four or five months with this
company and they planned to shut us down. We were really in a tough situation
because what do you do at that point. We had to be honest and tell people
what was going on and a lot of people didn't want to make their records.
You put your heart and soul into an album and nothing comes out. It just
gets buried somewhere. Over that two year period, we were not allowed
to hire people and we lost some staff because we were sharing some functions
with other labels within the Alliance group. So we lost our sales and
marketing team. It was really encouraging that the artists and employees
stuck in there. The artists were incredibly supportive. It was really
the good side of this thing. We have a family organization and everybody
cares about one another. Our philosophy is to treat the artists like family
and like people. I think that saved us in a lot of ways.
FJ:
Poncho mentioned to me that the only reason why he stayed on, when he
was getting other offers was your integrity and his trust in you.
JOHN
BURK: To me that personal relationship is very important. That is why
I am in this business. I would make a lot more money selling computer
software or something. It is just I love the music. I love the artists
and the people that we work with.
FJ:
Let's touch on some of those artists, first, the unknown backbone of Concord,
its vocalists. Most labels don't even carry vocalists.
JOHN
BURK: That is interesting, Fred. It is a funny time because on the jazz
charts for example. The top ten (Billboard) most of the time these days
are vocalists or budget compilations of various artists. It is really
hard these days for an instrumental jazz musician to get into the top
ten or to sell those kind of units. It is unfortunate, but that is the
climate we are in at the moment. We've always liked working with vocalist
for a number of reasons. I am a fan of jazz vocalists and Jefferson certainly
was. A lot of our history and a lot of our singers go back to Jefferson,
Karrin Allyson, Rosemary Clooney of course. We signed Nneena (Nneena Freelon).
The great thing about jazz vocals is that it is much more accessible to
non-jazz fans. It is an easier entry to understand. Once you hear a song
through a singer's delivery and then when you hear an instrumentalist
do it, it means more to you and you have a better understanding of where
they are taking it and what they are doing with it. The school of thought
among instrumentalists is that you really should know the words if you
are going to play a song and deliver it with real meaning and understanding,
you should know the meaning of the song. Singers have that additional
means of communication, which makes it more easily accessible.
FJ:
Will you continue to aggressively release vocal albums?
JOHN
BURK: Oh yeah. Yeah. We have had a lot of young artists on our label and
one of the central things of who we are and what we have tried to do is
artist development. Basically, any artist that signs to the label and
makes a long term commitment to us, our commitment to them is to build
their career and to take it somewhere. We are not going to be satisfied
to say that Rosemary Clooney is a show business legend and that is enough.
A lot of the young artists are the ones that require a lot of development.
It is a challenge these days to take an unknown artist and have them accepted
by the jazz world and beyond. One of the artists that has shown the most
growth and potential is Karrin Allyson. That has been very encouraging
and we feel there is a ton of untapped potential with her, as well as
Nneena. These are a couple of up and comers that we feel we can do really,
really well with.
FJ:
Who are you currently aggressively trying to market?
JOHN
BURK: Let me put it this way, Fred. Anybody that is on the label, we are
trying to develop and take somewhere.
FJ:
So it is a committment to any artist on the label?
JOHN
BURK: Yeah, if we are going to do it and make the investment, time, and
money, and human resources, this age, especially in this market, we want
to go somewhere with them. So if a record comes out on Concord, you can
be sure we want to see that artist grow. Otherwise, we just can't do it.
It has gotten to the point where there are so many records coming out
from so many different labels that the market is saturated. It has gotten
really expensive to try and market an artist and to get a record to cut
through the clutter. We are hearing from radio and retail and the press
to not release records that we are not serious about. There was a time
in the boom of CDs in our Jefferson ear, where we could release records,
purely because they were great records and great artists and we did not
have to promote them a lot and they would sell. It was a different era
in the marketplace and things were much easier to get out there. If it
was a good record, it would do OK. And now, you can release a good record
and it will get lost.
FJ:
Well, you are competing with re-issues now.
JOHN
BURK: Yeah, in a big way. In a big way and that is one of the difficult
things about building a young artist. You may find a piano player that
you think is phenomenal and if you just throw his record out there and
you don't promote him, let's say that there was no promotion around Brad
Mehldau, how is he going to compete with Erroll Garner and Thelonious
Monk and Art Tatum? How are you going to get the story out there? Those
guys are well known. Where do you hear these artists? Stations like, you're
in LA, Fred, stations like KLON are great and they help expose artists,
but they are not a top 40 format and so you don't get the saturation that
you get for a new Britney Spears record. So you don't get that kind of
exposure. Publications like yours get the word out, but the opportunities
to hear and get to know an artist are not there. You really have to go
out and buy the record to know who they are and know the artist. That
makes it difficult to build a new artist. If you have fifteen bucks to
buy a CD and you walk into a store, you know you like Art Tatum and there
has to be between three and thirty records that you don't have of his.
If you buy one of his you know you are going to like it or your chances
are good or you can take a chance on the new kid. How do we convince them
to take a chance on the new kid? It is important that we do for the survival
of the genre.
FJ:
With the latest in-style trend of mega-mergers, how is Concord approaching
the new marketplace to stand apart from these bulky conglomerates?
JOHN
BURK: We are very excited about all the possiblities that all of that
creates. You have two of the biggest jazz labels merge recently, the Universal
Group and the Polygram Group. So you had Verve and GRP/Impulse! combined
into one. That just cut our competition in half in a way. They are huge
and we don't have the depth of catalog that they have, but there is one
less player in the game right there. Then you are looking at Atlantic
and Sony who are pulling back pretty heavily on their jazz programs. I
know BMG is dismantling their jazz program. So a lot of the majors are
getting out of it now or pulling back. That is a great opportunity for
us because the majors have the money and resources to get behind something
and for us to compete head to head with that is difficult. We don't have
the new Santana record to pay the bills. We have to make it on our own
promotion. We have to be self-sustaining. However, we do a pretty good
job in competing with the majors and now, it is going to be even easier.
Also, there will be a lot of great artists that will be dropped and they
will be available. We have been staffing up pretty heavily to capitalize
on this opportunity. For us, it is kind of a wide-open territory. The
new technology will be great for us and great for jazz in general. We
are really aggressive about trying to maximize all the opportunities that
that presents. For example, all of our music will be avaiable for download.
You can get a track or a whole album of anything we've ever recorded.
It would be impossible for us to get all of our music into a Tower store
for example. They just won't carry it.
FJ:
They just don't have the budget.
JOHN
BURK: No, there are too many SKUs, too many titles. And it is hard to
keep a record in stock that does not sell thirty or forty units a year.
It is hard to justify the carrying cost. However, one of the reasons why
it only sells thirty or forty units a year is because stores don't keep
it in stock. It is a vicious cycle. This way we can make it available
and it is there for fans who want it. I personally buy a lot of CDs online
now because I got tired of going into record stores and not finding what
I want.
FJ:
In their defense, I did buying for Tower in a past life and there are
very restricting budgets that a buyer has to adhere to.
JOHN
BURK: Well, yeah, there is no way that they can do it. You know how difficult
it is then. You have to put the things in there that are going to move.
It is a business. It is physically impossible. That is the beauty of the
internet. It will be available all the time and for a jazz fan that likes
to browse and collect, it is fantastic. Still, the bulk of the business
is through retail. The internet just gives us an opportunity to fill these
niches. It is not hurting the retailer because they are not going to have
that stuff anyway and they can't afford to carry it either. I see it really
helping the label and the artists. If you have a Stan Getz record and
a new sax player and you're a buyer, you know what you are going to do.
You are going to go light on the new guy. The problem is you as the buyer,
logically, go light on the new guy and for us, as a label, we want you
to buy the Stan Getz record or we wouldn't be putting it out, but we want
the new guy to get discovered. So we are going to be putting our money
into that one. That is the one we are going to be promoting. That is the
one we are going to trying to get out there and tour. But, if we are successful
and there are only two records in the bin, it is pretty hard to justify
those sales to pay for our promotion. There is the economic problem. You
know how tough it is to tour in the United States. Even established artists
have a tough time.
FJ:
Concord was on the Latin movement, which has now become a bandwagon.
JOHN
BURK: Right.
FJ:
Prior to it becoming anything, especially with Poncho.
JOHN
BURK: I'll tell you something, Fred. When I first came to Concord in '89,
one of the first things I did was looking through the catalog and I discovered
Poncho within about a week of working here. I immediately fell in love
with his music. Then when I got to know Poncho, I fell in love with him.
He is such a beautiful guy. He is a great bandleader and we have become
really, really good friends. We used to spend half of a percent a year
on co-op and the industry average is three to five percent. Jefferson's
philosophy was you put out great music and people will find it and it
worked. The whole time he ran it, it did well, but for us to grow we had
to step up our marketing investments. We did a big program in the fall
of '95 and it was centered on four artists. One was Poncho's Soul Sauce
album. We put some money behind it and Poncho showed perhaps the most
benefit from that promotion. Then we got a little tail wind from the Latin
boom. Poncho is doing great right now.
FJ:
How extensive is the Concord catalog now?
JOHN
BURK: I think we are very close or we may have surpassed producing a thousand
records. We are up there.
This
is just a taste of the music on Concord that is worth the dimes you spend
on it, worth ever single one. Now, my tastes are not yours and I even
ask, "What does he know?" So fear not, if you want to hesitate before
buying every single thing I have picked out here. For instance, every
Live at Maybeck Recital Hall and every Piano Jazz edition is worthy, but
typing makes my fingers hurt. There are many more where they came from
(www.concordrecords.com). Browse
and be a savy shopper. And if you hear a little somethin' somethin' that
should be on the list, email me and yell (and yelling via email I have
learned consists of all caps). I will ignore you for about a week (which
is when I usually get around to emails) and put it up on the list, but
please, make a good argument. Convince me. Dazzle me. Enjoy. Later. --ed
1.
Karrin Allyson - Collage
2. Kenny Barron - Live at Maybeck Recital Hall
3. Art Blakey - New York Scene
4. Art Blakey - Live at Kimball's
5. Art Blakey - In This Korner
6.
Art Blakey - Straight Ahead
7. Joanne Brackeen - Fi-Fi Goes to Heaven
8. Joanne Brackeen - Live at Maybeck Recital Hall
9. Ray Brown - Moore Makes 4
10. Kenny Burrell - Lotus Blossum
11. Gary Burton / Chick Corea / Pat Metheny / Roy Haynes / Dave Holland
- Like Minds
12. Charlie Byrd - My Inspiration: Music of Brazil
13. Avishai Cohen - Adama
14. Avishai Cohen - Devotion
15. Al Cohn - Standards of Excellence
16. Al Cohn - Overtones
17. Jon Faddis - Legacy
18. Art Farmer - Work of Art
19. Nneena Freelon - Maiden Voyage
20. Stan Getz / Chet Baker - Quintessence, Volume 1
21. Stan Getz / Chet Baker - Quintessence, Volume 2
22. Stan Getz - Dolphi
n 23. Stan Getz - Pure Getz
24. Scott Hamilton - Tenorshoes
25. Scott Hamilton - 2
26. Scott Hamilton - East of the Sun
27. Scott Hamilton - Plays Ballads
28. Scott Hamilton - My Romance
29. Scott Hamilton - After Hours
30. Gene Harris - Brotherhood
31. Gene Harris - It's Real Soul
32. Gene Harris - At Last
33. Hank Jones - Lazy Afternoon
34. LA Four - LA Four
35. Marian McPartland - Plays Mary Lou
36. Gerry Mulligan / Scott Hamilton - Soft Lights
37. Walter Norris - Live at Maybeck Recital Hall
38. Walter Norris - Hues of Blue
s 39. Walter Norris - Sunburst
40. Walter Norris - Lush Life
41. Walter Norris - Love Every Moment
42. John Patitucci - Now
43. John Patitucci - Imprint
44. Chris Potter - Pure
45. Chris Potter - Concentric Circles
46. Chris Potter - Moving In
47. Chris Potter - Vertigo
48. Chris Potter / Kenny Werner - Concord Duo Series No. 10
49. Marvin Smith - Road Less Traveled
50. Lew Tabackin - Tenority
51. Lew Tabackin - Desert Lady
52. Kenny Werner - Live at Visiones
53. Jessica Williams - Live at Maybeck Recital Hall
54. Anything from Phil Woods
55. Anything from Poncho Sanchez, no everything from Poncho
56. Everything off the Stretch label (had to cheat, hands were getting
tired)
Fred
Jung is the Editor-In-Chief and the man that shuts off the fridge light.
Comments? Email
him.